More than a million people have now been vaccinated against Covid-19 in SA.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that, as of the end of May, there had been 1,045,104 individuals who had either received the single-dose J&J vaccine or the first of the double-dose Pfizer vaccine.

Of these, 479,768 had been vaccinated under the Sisonke protocol and 565,336 under phase 2 of the rollout programme.

“It is my pleasure to announce that we have breached the million mark and have vaccinated 1,045,104 individuals. I wish to thank all involved in the vaccination campaign, from the director-general of health to each and every vaccinator continuing to battle it out for the nation on the front line. We will continue to ramp up daily vaccinations, working together with the private sector towards attaining the targets we have committed to,” said health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize.

Releasing the figures, Mkhize announced that there were 3,614 new cases of Covid-19 recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of infections to 1,669,231. The new infections came from 36,677 tests — a positivity rate of 9.85%.

Mkhize also reported that there were 95 new Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 56,601.

Of the newly recorded deaths, 44 were in Gauteng, 27 were in the Free State, nine were in the Western Cape, seven were in the Northern Cape, five were in KwaZulu-Natal and three were in the Eastern Cape.

TimesLIVE